Pronger continues to show progress

FLYERS - The defensive star has been told to expect a full recovery after his back surgery, however, he admits it's not a lock he will be fully ready for training camp in September.

The only certain thing about back surgery is uncertainty.

While doctors have told Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger to expect a complete recovery from an operation to repair a herniated disc earlier this month, Pronger knows there are no sure things when it comes to this sort of injury.

"I was told it (surgery) went very well," Pronger said during a media conference call Thursday morning.

"It relieved a lot of the weakness I was having in my leg and now it is just a matter of how the nerve regenerates itself and the range of motion and all the rest of that stuff. How it recovers and that stuff are probably another four to five weeks before we see where that is at."

The Flyers' most valuable player in 2009-10 and the team's "most missed" player in 2010-11 (he played in only 50 regular-season and three playoff games), Pronger admits it's not a lock he's going to be a hundred percent when training camp opens in September.

"Well, like anything else, especially with the back, there's no guarantee, and that was one of the things we wanted to find out when I went and met with the doctor and what his recommendations are and what he has seen," Pronger said.

"Everybody is different and everybody recovers differently and you hope that you're able to recover a hundred percent, but that's never a guarantee and you never know. It's still very early to be able to tell that. I won't know that until probably training camp or maybe even further on, who knows."

Pronger turns 37 this fall. Players at that age usually take longer to recover. Last season, he missed all of training camp, the preseason and the first couple games of the regular season due to knee surgery.

It wouldn't surprise anyone if this recovery timeline followed a similar path.

"Today is Day 14 post-surgery, so again I'm not going to know. I go back for another check up in three to four weeks and then you know I'll begin to start rehab," Pronger said. "I'm not Kreskin, I can't look into the future and tell you what's going to happen or not happen."

Pronger was told he probably couldn't continue his career without the surgery.

"It was an option," he said, "but in order for me to try and play hockey again it was pretty cut and dry. I could have went through the whole summer rehab and you know, get another steroid injection and see if that calms the nerve down, but it was a pretty bad herniated disc.

"The odds of it becoming an issue again were very high. In my estimation it wasn't really that high of a chance of not having the surgery done if I wanted to play anymore."

The defenseman began to feel symptoms after returning from a broken hand in Game 6 of the Buffalo series.

It's the first back trouble he's ever experienced in a career that dates back to 1993.

He says he's already experienced some relief from the pain he's had for the past month.

"Basically, they removed the impingement that is pushing against the nerve root in order to alleviate, we can call it vibrations, sensations, weakness that you have in your leg," he said.

"You know the reason you want to do it as quickly as possible from what I got from my meeting with the doctor was you don't want the nerve exposed to that too long. It just creates more and more damage and you want that nerve to be able to regenerate so that you can get as much strength back as possible."

Pronger still has five years remaining on his contract with the Flyers. Whether this injury will have impact on fulfilling the deal remains to be seen. He still has the passion for the game, if the body is willing.

"I felt good when I played this year," he said. "That's the funny thing, every time I started to feel better and started to get my feet underneath me and get back into the grove, I had another injury.

"Mentally I feel like I can play. When I was healthy, my play speaks for itself. It's a matter of staying healthy. This year was very tough, every time I turned around I had another injury.

"It wasn't like it was a bump and a bruise, it was something broken that needed surgery to fix. That can be a little disappointing and frustrating, when you know you can still play at a high level and your play speaks to that and you're not able to go out and play.

"That's tough, especially when you feel like you can add another element to the team when you're out there. Mentally I've got a lot left, it's how my back feels. Basically, if the surgery works and I am able to train properly and get healthy, I don't see why I can't continue to play as long as I want, as long as everything else holds up."

Wayne Fish can be reached at wfish@phillyBurbs.com

Follow Fish on Twitter@waynefish1

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